Internal Feelings
by 23luckyduck
Summary: Levy's and Gajeel's relationship seems to be improving, but Lucy is left in her own thoughts, thinking Natsu will never return her feelings. DISCONTINUED UNTIL FURTHER NOTICE
1. Chapter 1 - Deep thoughts

**Hey so this is my first fanfic! This takes place before the 1 year time skip (for manga readers) nowhere specifically? It's just somewhere. Let me know what you think and thanks for reading! If there are any mistakes please let me know. Go easy on me please. ( *3*)**

 **Edit - changed the time that Levy and Lucy will meet up**

* * *

 **Chapter 1**

Lucy walked towards the guild, stretching in the chilly afternoon sun. So far it was a pretty good day. She had written a couple of chapters of her novel this morning, and she didn't even have to pay her rent today. Her and Natsu had gone on a big job a couple of weeks ago that had left them with plenty of jewels for Lucy's rent. She was covered for the next couple of months. Thankful Natsu hadn't destroyed anything too big, or she would have been freaking out in her apartment right now.

It was right about noon and it was a beautiful fall day in Magnolia. Lucy was going to meet up with Levy at the guild to discus new books, so she quickened her pace, not wanting to keep her best friend waiting.

Lucy walked through the doors of the guild and the usual friendly chatter met her ears.

"Lu-chan!"

Lucy looked around for the source of the bluehead's voice, and saw her sitting in a small booth near the bar, with books scattered on the table.

"Levy-chan! How are you?" Lucy walked over, pulling her own books out of her purse to add them to the pile as she sat down across from Levy.

"I'm great! I just got back from a job with Gajeel."

"Oh yeah thats right! Taking down bandits near Jeju Mountain right?" Lucy received a nod in response, and noticed a slight blush on Lev's cheeks. Lucy smirked. "How was your time with Gajeel?" She asked with a mischievous hint in her voice.

"Lu-chan!" Levy grew redder by the second. Lucy's smirk grew wider. "Um... well it wasn't really much..."

"Spill it!"

"Well when we were fighting with the bandits..."

* * *

 _Levy and Gajeel stood back to back, surrounded by bandits. They had been fighting for a few minutes and Levy was breathing hard. Gajeel had been helping her train recently but she still tired easily in a fight._

 _"You okay shrimp?" Gajeel voiced his concern about the bluehead._

 _"I'm doing fine, I'm just a little tired," Levy snapped. "You should worry about yourself. Isn't the head bandit going to be tough?"_

 _"Gihi, that's my shrimp. Nah, he'll be a piece of cake." Sure enough, Gajeel easily took down the leader minutes later. Meanwhile, Levy, focused on the bandit in front of her, was unaware of the one aiming an arrow straight at her from behind. The bandit let the arrow fly and Levy turned to see it coming right at her. Suddenly, a black object moved right in between her and the arrow. Levy slowly opened her eyes to see Gajeel holding the arrow, standing protectively between her and the archer._

 _"Gajeel..."_

 _"Watch your back shrimp. I can't let you die on me. You're too important."_

* * *

Lucy squealed. Levy's face was the color of Nastu's flames and she was furiously ringing her hands in her lap.

"Oh my god Levy!" Lucy was beyond excitement. It was so obvious that the Iron dragon slayer had a thing for the solid script mage. Anybody could tell by just seeing how he looked at her and how protective he was. It was about time he stared to show her his feelings. And with Lucy being Levy's best friend, she knew exactly how Levy felt. Lucy was started to wonder if she would have to play matchmaker to get the two together. Apparently, Gajeel had started to make a move, so it didn't seem necessary anymore.

"Shhhhh Lucy not so loud!"

"Okay okay I'll be quieter. So did anything happen after that?" Lucy leaned forward placing her elbows on the table.

"Well... he wants to.." Levy's voice grew inaudible.

"Levy I can't hear you." Lucy sighed and rolled her eyes.

"He-he wants to get dinner tomorrow night..." Her voice was barley a whisper.

Lucy screamed. A few people looked over, but then turned around once seeing it was just Lucy and Levy.

"Lucy!" Levy hissed. Lucy didn't know that Levy's face could get any redder than it already was, but apparently it could.

"Sorry I'm just so excited for you! Where are you going?"

"He's taking me to The Lacrima. Can you help me pick a dress?" Lucy's jaw hung open for a few seconds.

"The Lacrima?! Thats a really fancy restaurant! And of course I'll help!"

"Okay thank you so much Lucy. And don't tell anybody please."

"Of course. You can count on me. How about we get started on these books? I'm dying to know how Lost in Power was."

"Oh right! The books!" Levy seemed relieved at the change of topics as she searched for the object that granted her escape from Lucy's tormenting romantic questions.

* * *

It was past dark by the time Lucy and Levy left the guild after many hours discussing recent books and authors. They agreed that Lucy would come over to Fairy Hills tomorrow to help Levy get ready around 6. They said their goodbyes and left, without Lucy first promising to get more details out of Levy later.

Lucy was walking along the edge of the canal. The friendly boaters who always told her to watch out had already gone home. It was pretty late after all, and sense it was October, it was cold. Lucy shivered, clutching her too thin coat to her body.

Lucy thought about her and Levy's earlier conversation. She was happy that Gajeel was finally making a move. After months of dealing with disappointed Levy, Lucy was about to take the reins herself.

But then Lucy started to wonder about her own situation. Would anybody ever make a move on her? Instantly a tan, pink haired, scarf wearing, smiling face came to mind. Lucy stopped walking and shook her head. Did she like Natsu? That was an understatement. She loved Natsu. Her feelings hadn't started to build until a couple years ago. It wasn't love at first sight, Lucy didn't believe in that. The past years that she had spent with Natsu were the happiest in her whole life. True she hadn't had the best childhood experience, but now she was happier than she had ever imaged she would be. He was her light in the dark. He fought with her and for her. When she was kidnapped by Phantom, everybody said he had never been angrier. Whenever she was hurt he got angry for her sake. He teased her but she knew he never meant any harm. That smile of his that melted her heart, no matter how matter how upset she had been at the moment. He showed her the warmth of having a family. But would she ever admit it to anybody? Never. And would he ever feel the same about her? No. He wouldn't. She was sure of it.

Lucy climbed the stairs to her apartment, feeling the effect of her deep thinking session on her body. Whenever she started wondering deeply about her feelings like that, it made her physically tired. For that reason, she tried not to think about it too often. But the whole Levy and Gajeel thing had dragged her right back into it unprepared.

She turned the door handle, and slowly shut it behind her. Lucy leaned up against the door and sighed. She hated thinking about Natsu like that. It just got her down because she knew he would never feel the same. Why would he?

Lucy stood back up and dropped her purse filled with books and her coat on the floor, not even bothering to turn the lights on. She slowly changed into pajamas, brushed her teeth, tied her hair in a messy bun, and looked for her extra blanket sense it was so cold. After a few minutes of looking, she gave up. She couldn't find it anywhere. Lucy slowly dragged herself to her bed, ready to get lost in dreams that had nothing to do with Natsu and love. As she grew closer she noticed the sheets were slowly moving. Almost like somebody was there... With a sinking feeling she carefully pulled the sheets back to revel the same pink haired object she had just been thinking so deeply about.

Lucy internally groaned. If this were any other night, she would just get into bed and use Natsu as a heater. But not tonight. This was too much.

She replaced the sheet and tucked it in, to make sure that Natsu would be comfortable. Not really caring anymore, she shuffled to her couch, grabbed the thin blanket that was there, and laid down shivering, hoping sleep would put her out of her misery.


	2. Chapter 2 - In his arms

**I already got a bunch of views on this story, as well as some follows and a favorite! Thank you so much! Sorry, the next couple of chapters are kind of short. I'll try to update every few days if I can!**

* * *

 **CHAPTER 2**

Lucy started to slowly regain consciousness. She could tell it was morning due to the annoyingly cheerful birds chirping and the faint sunlight she could make out even with her eyes closed. But strangely enough she was warm, even with the scrawny thin couch blanket she had used instead of getting in bed with sleeping Natsu the night before. Lucy dismissed the puzzled emotions and snuggled further down into the warmth before falling asleep again.

Lucy woke up for the second time that morning, but this time with more willingness to actually get up. She was still strangely warm. Slowly she opened her eyes to a pink haired sleeping face, inches away from her own. Suddenly she was wide awake. Lucy quickly leaned up on her elbow. She was still on the couch, but Natsu was there too. The bed was empty. Had Natsu woken up in the night and seen her on the couch? Suddenly Lucy noticed how close they were. His back was against the back of the couch, leaving her facing in towards him. His arm was resting on her waist, and their legs were tangled together. When Lucy had woken up she had been pressed against his chest! Plus he was shirtless! She was blushing fiercely at the thought of touching him so easily. Caught up in her own thoughts, she barely heard mumbling sounds from the waking fire eater.

"Mmmmm... Luce? You up?" Natsu said with a yawn.

"Huh? Oh Natsu you're awake."

Natsu only nodded. He slowly opened his eyes, adjusting them on the blonde in front of him.

"Good morning Luce" Natsu yawned again, starting to actually wake up.

"Natsu why are you here?"

'Huh?" His sleepy eyes looked at her with confusion. "Oh well I didn't get to see you yesterday so I thought I would just wait for you to come home and see you then. I guess I fell asleep. Sorry." He sat up, rubbing his eyes.

"Oh, okay... Wait thats not what I mean. You fell asleep in my bed, why are you on the couch?" Lucy sat up as well, so that they were facing each other.

"Well I woke up in the middle of the night and I noticed that you weren't in bed so I was thinking you weren't home yet but then I saw you on the couch and you were shivering. So I got up to carry you to your bed but you were heavier than before so I gave up and got on the couch as well." Natsu shrugged.

Lucy had the sudden urge to punch him.

But she was still mentally exhausted from yesterday so she just flopped back on the couch.

"Come here." She said. Natsu looked confused. "Oh my god Natsu lie down for crying out loud." Natsu slowly laid down next to her again. Without a seconds hesitation Lucy wrapped her arms around his waist and snuggled into his warmth again. She felt him stiffen. After a few seconds he relaxed and put his arms around her body. Lucy felt him ever so slightly pull her towards him and she smiled. This is where she belonged. She closed her eyes and forgot about all her troubles in the arms of the man she loved the most.


	3. Chapter 3 - Jumpy feelings

**Hello! Thanks to everybody who has read this far into my story! I really appreciate it! Right now, I have up to chapter 5 written. Unfortunately I will have to go on hiatus for around 3 weeks in a few days. Honestly it was stupid to start this story when I immediately have to put it on hold. So i apologize about that. Hopefully I can think of some ideas during that time. I'll try to get some more written tomorrow, and hopefully on the large amount of hours that i will be on planes during this 3 weeks trip.**

 **Also I'm so sorry chapter 2 was so short. Just some Nalu fluff. Enjoy chapter 3!**

* * *

 **CHAPTER 3**

It was around 5:45 PM and Lucy was making her way to Fairy Hills to help Levy get ready for her date with Gajeel. After Natsu and Lucy had actually gotten up, they had spent the day eating, (No surprise there) talking and just hanging out in their pajamas at her house. They didn't even go to the guild. And to Lucy's delight, Natsu's version of pajamas was him only wearing his regular pants, so she got to look at his chest (secretly) for the majority of the day. Happy was with Wendy and Charla for the day. Unfortunately, she had to make Natsu go home so she could go to Levy's. Not that she didn't want to help Levy, she was having such a nice day with Natsu. But she promised Levy she would help. On the other hand, Lucy had promised to go with him on a job the next day, so it wasn't like she wouldn't see him for a few days.

10 minutes later, a flustered Levy wearing only a towel flung open her apartment door.

"Lucy! Thank god you're here, I have no idea what to wear!" Lucy laughed.

"Alright first calm down. Shoo shoo go drink some water." Lucy pushed Levy into her kitchen and then walked into the mess that Levy called her living room. Lucy was used to the seemingly infinite amount of books impossibly stacked and piled everywhere, but today it was worse than normal. All of Levy's clothes were thrown everywhere on top of the books and Lucy swore every single piece of clothing Levy owned was somewhere in here, rather than neatly hung in her closet.

Levy, who seemed to have calmed down a little, expertly walked through the mess towards Lucy.

"Levy-chan you really need to clean up. Yeah the books are to be expected, but really? What if Gajeel wants to come over and get down and dirty? Theres no room!"

"Lu-chan!" Levy squealed, her face turning the same color as Gajeel's eyes, which made Lucy laugh.

"Alright hahahah, lets get you dressed."

* * *

2 hours later, both Lucy and Levy were satisfied. Levy was wearing a long black dress with a slit up one leg, exposing her upper thigh, and high platform heels. Her hair, done by Cancer, was pulled back in a bun with a fancy clip, and a curly strand left out just behind her ear.

"Levy-chan you looked beautiful!" Lucy was sitting on Levy's cleared off bed. She had long ago ditched her jacket and shoes and her hair was tied up in a sloppy ponytail. "Thanks for the help cancer!"

"Anytime- ebi." Cancer returned to the spirit world with one last snip of his scissors.

"Do you think he'll like it?" Levy was staring at her reflection, seemingly unable to understand how it was her.

"Are you kidding me? He's going to love it. But if he wants to get dirty, you're going to have to do it at his place. Your place is too much of a mess." Lucy smirked again.

"Lu-chan!" Levy flushed red for the hundredth time that night.

"Say what time is Gajeel picking you up?" Lucy leaned back on the bed.

"He's coming at 8." Levy was still admiring her reflection in awe.

"Holy crap!" Lucy shot up. "It's like 7:50! I'll grab your jacket and purse." Lucy ran to the living room. On the way back to Levy, Lucy spied an open book filled with pieces of paper covered in notes sticking out and highlighted lines on her desk. Sure taking notes in books was normal for Levy, but there were more notes than normal. Curious, Lucy peeked at the cover.

 _A Complete History of Dragons_. Lucy tried not to laugh out loud at Levy's cute studying. She flipped the book back to the page it was at, and scanned her notes. Levy was taking notes on dragon behavior. That was so cute.

After Levy was all ready to go with her matching white jacket and purse, Lucy sat down in an armchair with contentment. She was so happy for Levy. Gajeel better thank her later for making Levy so beautiful. Well, Levy was already beautiful, Lucy just helped bring it out. Levy was still looking at herself in the mirror. Lucy thought it was cute. Levy didn't dress up much, but she looked amazing when she did. Lucy was glad she brought the black dress. In fact she would probably let Levy keep it. It looked better on her anyways, plus who knows it might be ripped "accidently" by a certain red-eyed dragon slayer.

Lucy was snapped out of her trance by Levy's squeak.

"Lucy he's here!" She was looking out the window down to the street. Lucy stood up and ran over to Levy's side. Looking down, Lucy saw Gajeel standing on the street corner while casually kicking a rock. Lucy's jaw dropped open. He had tied his hair back and he was wearing a suit. Lucy whistled.

"For somebody who eats iron he sure does clean up well." Lucy received a playful smack on the arm.

"Oh my god Lucy I don't know if I can do this." Levy's hand was fluttering above her heart with nerves.

"Look at me Levy." Levy slowly turned towards the blonde, her eyes uncertain and her cheeks red. "You look beautiful. Trust me. You're going to knock his socks off. Just act how you always act okay?" Levy nodded. "Now go catch yourself a dragon girl." Levy giggled as Lucy pushed her out of the room. "Seems like you'll know what to do based on all of that dragon studying you've been doing." Levy squeaked.

"Did I leave the book out?"

"Yup. Pretty in detail notes you got there."

"I - i'm just learning in case something happens in battle you know!" Levy protested.

"Yeah sure. Oh yeah, by the way, you can keep the dress so you know if you guys get adventurous and it gets ripped or something, it's cool." Lucy shut the door, catching a glimpse of Levy's once again red face before it closed.

* * *

After picking up all her stuff and grabbing her jacket, Lucy was ready to go home and relax. Take a nice bath or something. On her way out, she passed Levy's desk with the dragon book. Curiuosioty getting the better of her, she sat down and flipped to a random page.

 _Dragons have a habit of exploring. Even if they have settled down in one area, they get restless if they have not gone off somewhere else for even a short period of time._

"Well that explains Natsu always wanting to go on jobs..." Lucy muttered. She flipped to another page, which apparently had the most notes and highlighted lines out of every other page in the whole book.

 _Dragons only have one mate their entire life. The realization of who their mate is will come all at once and their behavior dramatically changes. They will become increasingly protective, and violent to any possible romantic gestures extended to their mate. Sense dragons have one mate for life, their feelings are very deep. Due to this, it is extremely difficult to hide their affection. They long for physical touches and gestures as well as stimulating-_

Lucy shut the book, her face red. She sat very still in her seat, but her mind was running 100 miles a minute. 'Natsu's protective of me.. No wait, he's protective of everybody in Fairy Tail. Well he cares about my well being and he's always at my house and in my bed. Lucy that doesn't mean anything. That's just Natsu.' After minutes of mental arguing, Lucy stood up slowly, mentally exhausted from herself overthinking for the second time this week.

The whole way home was a mental battle as well. In the midst of her despair, Lucy wondered how Levy's date was going. Using that as a escape rope to escape her depressing thoughts, she focused on her best friend. Lucy hoped Gajeel would stop staring at Levy's ass long enough to ask her out. It was so obvious that was mostly all he looked at. But she knew he wasn't into her just because of looks. No, Lucy would have beat him up long ago if that was the case. Levy and Gajeel had become a regular team, and she could tell he really cared about her. Lucy couldn't even count the amount of times Levy told her that Gajeel had saved her. And there were probably a good amount of times that she didn't even tell her about as well. Lucy trusted Gajeel to take care of Levy.

Feeling better by the time she got home, Lucy unlocked her door to have a blue blur fly into her chest crying.

"Lucyyyyyyy! Natsu's so mean!" Lucy laughed, rubbing Happy's small blue head.

"What did he do this time?" A cry of protest came from her couch.

"I didn't do anything! Happy wanted some fish from your kitchen but I told him to wait because I knew you would kick us out if we ate your food without your permission." Natsu stretched his arms above his head. Lucy froze. Natsu actually waited till she got home to ask permission to eat her food? Lucy had been half expecting her kitchen to be empty when she walked in. She quickly walked over to the couch and bent over, putting her hand on Natsu's forehead.

"Do you have a fever or something?" His forehead was warm, but he was always warm so it was his normal body temperature. Lucy dropped her hand.

"No. Why would I? I don't get sick. By the way where were you? It's almost 10. Does it really take that long for girls to get ready for a date?" Natsu pouted, obviously upset that Lucy was gone so long. Lucy laughed and sat down on the couch next to him, still petting Happy who was still crying.

"No, I'm sorry, I got distracted. I was reading one of Levy's books..." Lucy trailed off, her face getting red when she remembered exactly where she left off.

"Are you sure _you_ aren't sick? Your face is red." Natsu leaned closer, putting his hand on her forehead.

Lucy flushed harder and quickly stood up, depositing crying Happy onto Natsu's lap.

"No, no I'm fine! I'm just tired! I'm… I'm going to go take a shower!" Lucy's voice was a few octaves than normal as she almost ran into the bathroom. Shutting the door behind her she slid down and swore internally. All this deep thinking seemed to be making her fall even harder for him. She could normally handle that. She was pretty good with covering up any possible traces of romantic attraction, but apparently not anymore.

Sighing, she rested her head on her knees. She hated her new ability of turning the same color as Natsu's guild mark every time he showed her the smallest amount of attention. How was she going to keep being his partner if this kept up?


	4. Chapter 4 - Arrival

**Hello readers! I'm so sorry I was on hiatus for 3 weeks! But now I'm back and I have lots of energy to write! I'm posting this earlier than intended as an apology for being gone. I'm trying to make the chapters longer, I know that chapter 2 was basically a 5 paragraphs. Please leave a review letting me know what you think! Enjoy!**

* * *

 **CHAPTER 4**

Lucy ruffled Natus's pick locks as the scenery of Magnolia flashed by in the train car. Natsu had fallen asleep, as well as Happy, due to being forced onto a train early in the morning because of Lucy's insisting that they arrive at their far away destination while the sun was still up. The night before, after Lucy's bath and calmed down, she made Natsu a meal as an apology for being late, and when he climbing into her bed afterwards, she didn't even kick him out. In result of that he told her that she was acting weird. Although Lucy would never admit it to anybody, she loved waking up next to him so she couldn't convince herself to kick him out.

After dragging Natsu and Happy onto the train, Lucy played with Natsu's hair until he fell asleep. It seemed to help him focus on something else other than his motion sickness. After an hour or two of just watching the hills pass by, Lucy found tiredness tugging at her own eyelids. Determined to not fall asleep so she could still make Natsu feel better if he woke up, she struggled to keep her eyes open. After what seemed like an eternity, sleep got the better of her and she slumped against the cold window.

* * *

Seemingly only 5 minutes later, Lucy felt consciousness slowly returning to her. She was leaning against something warm and soft. Humming, she experimentally opened her eyes. Wincing as her eyes tried to adjust to the bright sunlight outside, she realized it was not morning anymore. Lazily turning her head to see the thing that she was leaning on, she was surprised to be face to face with sleeping Natsu.

Suddenly more awake, Lucy realized that he must have noticed she was awake at some point and sat up. It was probably because she stopped playing with his hair when she fell asleep. A voice came over the speakers.

"Now arriving at Lilba Station." Lucy jumped. Lilba. That was their stop. Lucy gently shook Natsu awake as she gathered their bags.

The job Natsu and Lucy had accepted was to take back a stolen family relic from a local duke. The duke had hired mercenaries to steal it and was intending to sell it. Natsu and Lucy needed to get it back to the client before the duke could work out a deal.

Dragging half asleep Natsu and Happy out into the crisp autumn sun, Lucy took a deep breath. It was nice to get off that train. Her forcing the early train boarding had worked, for it was mid afternoon, enough time to look around the town. Natsu yawned.

"Are we here?" He lazily blinked in the sunlight.

"Yes Natsu we're here. Lets stop by the hotel and drop off our stuff okay? Then let's get some lunch and look around the town for a bit. Also we need to drop by the clients house to get information about the mission." At the mention of food, Natsu suddenly had more of a spring in his step. He was even telling Lucy to hurry up as he ran ahead to the hotel.

Fortunately, the hotel they were staying at was nice enough to satisfy Lucy for the price she was paying for a single room. During their last job, the hotel there had totally ripped her off and she was furious for the whole mission. Thats partly why Natsu didn't destroy anything huge. Lucy would have killed him.

Lucy opened the door to their room and internally swore. There was only one bed.

Natsu, chill as always, dropped his bag on the bed and looked around.

"Pretty nice room! Good job Luce! You picked a nice place." He grinned his signature grin and promptly melted her insides.

"Well yeah, you should know to not underestimate me when it comes to hotels." She walked over to the balcony and pulled open the curtains, hoping he didn't notice her blush. She gave a satisfied little "hmph" when she saw their room had a nice view of the little town. From the balcony, she could see a big mansion on the hill a mile or two away. Based on information from the lady at the hotel desk, that was their clients house. Turning around, Lucy dropped her bag on the floor.

"You're sleeping on the floor." She announced. Natsu, who was lying down, shot up.

"What? Why?" He whined.

"Because we aren't sleeping in the same bed Natsu that's why." She sighed and put her hands on her hips. Natsu looked extremely confused.

"But why? We slept in the same bed last night, and the night before that we slept on the couch!" Lucy blushed. She didn't want to explain it to him. At her house, it was a normal routine. But here it seemed more intimate. Lucy forgot to ask for two beds. Damn that desk lady for assuming they were a couple. Not giving much of a fight, she threw up her hands.

"Fine. I'm putting a pillow between us though."

"What? Lucy whyyy?" Damn his innocent side.

"I'm not budging on this one. That's my only condition. It's that or you're sleeping on the floor." Natsu flopped back on the bed again, giving up.

"Fine."

"Alright lets get something to eat, I'm starving." At the mention of food, Natsu jumped up, making Lucy laugh. She turned around to ask Happy if he wanted to come but he was sound asleep. She left a note explaining they were going to get food and stop by the clients house and she would bring him a fish when they got back. After closing the door as quietly as she could, Natsu grabbed her wrist and took off down the hallway, motivated by Lucy saying she would pay.


	5. Chapter 5 - Smells like him

**Hello readers! Hope you are all doing well! I'm posting this in honor of Nalu week! Bless! If any of you have tumblrs, feel free to follow me - knightpringleprincess ! I'll be reblogging a bunch of Nalu stuff so yeah thats always fun! Feel free to message me that you're a reader btw. I'll probably cry. Anyway, happy nalu week and enjoy chapter 5!**

* * *

 **CHAPTER 5**

2 hours later, Natsu and Lucy left the restaurant with full bellies, and started walking to their clients house. Passing some cute shops, Lucy internally promised herself to make Natsu shop with her on the way back, especially after spying a pair of flame socks on sale. Simply chatting and laughing, they reached the mansion in no time.

A guard stopped them in front of huge gates leading to the mansion.

"Are you the mages from Fairy Tail?" He asked. Lucy and Natsu nodded and displayed their guild marks. "Please come in." The gates opened and a butler walked out to meet them.

"Please follow me to see Miss Auburn." They followed him into the house, up staircases and through long hallways as the butler chatted. "Thank you so much for coming. The mistress has been in distress ever sense the necklace was stolen. It's a family heirloom, passed down from generation to generation. It possesses a protection spell, which I suppose is why it was stolen. As well as the Duke of Maxon Creek has been a family rival for many decades."

"Why is he a family rival?" Lucy inquired as they neared a large set of double doors.

"It goes back to mistresses and the Dukes parents who were rivals in business. It carried down into their generation. I'm afraid I cannot go into the details."

"That's fine, I understand. Thank you for the information." Lucy's eyes slightly clouded as she remembered her own father. She shook her head to remove those depressing thoughts as the doors opened to reveal a middle-aged woman lying on a couch in a huge room.

She was wearing a dress fit for a queen, but her face was hollow with worry and lack of sleep. Her mood seemed out of place in the brightly decorated room filled with paintings, decorative rugs, flowers, hundreds of books, and a huge window looking over the town.

"Good afternoon Miss Auburn." Lucy curtsied and Natsu slightly bowed. Miss Auburn's mood seemed to brighten when she noticed the two mages in the room.

"Are you the mages from Fairy Tail?" When they nodded and displayed their guild marks, she smiled. "Such young people, you must be amazing indeed. Please call me Madeline. And do have a seat." She said gesturing to a couch positioned diagonally from her.

Natsu and Lucy sat down and Madeline told them the same story as the bulter, and then described what they would be required to do.

"According to my sources, the Duke currently has the necklace in his residence, but plans to sell it soon. They say he will try to make a deal at a ball he is holding tomorrow evening. I want the two of you to go to the ball and find the necklace and bring it back to me. This will require the two of you to dress the part so I will provide a dress and suit for the two of you. The Duke might be suspicious of wizards, so we will have to cover up your guild marks. Is all this alright with you?"

"This sounds fine. Would you like us to come tomorrow in the afternoon to try on the outfits and get ready?" Lucy was not looking forward to the ball part but she was getting paid for this, plus this necklace was really important to Madeline. Lucy was forced to go to balls as a child by her father and she had always hated them. She forced her unpleasant thoughts away when she heard Madeline begin to answer.

"Yes that would be perfect, if you don't mind." After that Lucy and Madeline chatted for a bit, before Natsu lightly bumped his knee with hers.

"Ah I'm sorry Madeline. We got up early today, so if you don't mind, we should go home now and get some rest for tomorrow." Madeline stood up.

"Of course I'm so sorry for keeping you. I forgot how far away Magnolia was from Lalba." Lucy and Natsu said their goodbyes, and started to walk down the hill.

"You were quiet." Lucy commented.

"Well I didn't have much to say. You were doing most of the talking. And you were pretty good at it so I wasn't really needed there. I'm just here to beat up the bad guys. I'm going to crush that Duke into a pulp!" Natsu started cracking his knuckles. Lucy laughed.

"Not just yet fire boy, calm down. We have to go to the ball first." Natsu groaned.

"I don't want to wear a suit. It's hard to fight in!" He complained.

"I'm sure you'll find a way to fight. As long as you don't turn into Gray and start stripping." Natsu looked insulted.

"I would never turn into Ice Princess! Why would I want to turn into his ugly ass? His ice magic is useless anyway." Lucy started laughing so hard her side began to hurt. Natsu smiled his signature grin and he started laughing as well.

When they had calmed down, Lucy spotted the store she had wanted to go into earlier. She quickly dragged him in but then lost sight of him. She shrugged, assuming he went and was drooling over candy or something. Lucy grabbed the flame socks and smiled. She hoped he would like them. She picked out some cute shirts for herself and paid. When she was done she started looking around for Natsu. She found him sitting outside on a bench.

"Done?" He asked eyeing her bag.

"Yes I'm done," She laughed. "Lets go back."

Arriving at their hotel, Lucy unlocked the door only to have Happy fly into her chest again.

"Lucy your so meannn you left me!" Lucy laughed and rubbed his head.

"Sorry Happy! You were sound asleep so I didn't want to bother you. I did bring you fish as I promised though!" Happy's eyes widened as she pulled a box out of her purse and handed it to him. Happy quickly flew to the table and started eating.

"Natsu, I'm going to take a shower and get ready for bed okay?" Lucy grabbed a random shirt from her bag as well as underwear and shorts.

"Okay, I'll take one after you." Natsu replied. Lucy closed to door to sounds of Natsu muttering about stupid suits that limited his movement and Happy cheerfully chewing on his fish.

When Lucy stepped out of the bathroom, Natsu had started to doze off. Lucy walked over and sat down next to his stretched out body. She watching his sleeping face and smiled. He looked so innocent. Nobody would ever think he was one of the most destructive mages in Fiore. His sleeping face was so adorable. He looked so relaxed. Lucy would have stared at his face forever, but Happy suddenly reminded her that she wasn't alone.

"You likkeeeeeeee him!" He purred from across the room. Lucy whipped around, her cheeks on fire.

"No I don't! Shut up you stupid cat or I'll throw you out the window!" She hissed. Happy just giggled. Lucy's sudden movement seemed to have woken Natsu. She turned around, her cheeks still burning to see him slowly open his eyes.

"Oh hey luce. Out of the shower?" He grinned sleepily and she melted.

"Y-yeah. I'm done, your turn now." She started to play with her wet hair. Natsu rubbed his eyes and yawned.

"Alright, then I'll go take one." He started to sit up, then stopped when he looked at her. Lucy froze, worried that he noticed how hard she was blushing. "Is that my shirt?" He squinted at the shirt she was wearing. Confused, she looked down.

Lucy swore internally.

It was his shirt.

She hadn't even looked at the shirts she had packed, let alone the shirt she grabbed to change into after her shower.

Her face was a brilliant shade of red. She was sure there was no way he wouldn't be able to miss it now. She couldn't even speak.

"I-uh... I -I wasn't looking at the clothes I packed..." She was furiously winding her hair around her finger now.

"You likeeeeee him!" Lucy heard from behind her. In one fluid motion, she grabbed a pillow and flung it straight at Happy, hitting him right in the face.

"No I don't!"

Natsu was grinning.

"Geez luce if you want to wear my shirts just say so!" He pulled off the shirt he was wearing and tossed it in her lap while walking to the bathroom, leaving a bewildered Lucy and a smirking Happy.

A confused and somewhat upset Lucy climbed into bed and "accidentally" didn't put a pillow between her spot and Natsu's. She didn't even protest when he climbed into bed next to her after his shower and wrapped his arms around her wasit. She was still wearing his shirt. She didn't want to take it off. It smelled like him.


	6. Chapter 6 - Stand in the way

**First of all i want to apologize. I haven't updated in a long time and I am so sorry! I ran into some writers block, but that actually wasn't all of it. The entire plot that I had set up for this story basically disintegrated. After finishing writing this mission (around chapter 8/9) I realized it completely conflicted with what I had planned. But not to worry, a new plot has emerged from the ashes! Its a way better concept that I came up with in the first place and it just works with the story better. It won't really take hold of the story until chapter 7 and 8 so y'all will have to wait a bit for it will be reviled I don't know what all this is up till this point is honestly.**

 **Again I am very sorry this chapter has come so late. As an apology I will try (key word try) to post chapter 7 sometime this week. I'm sorry I'm not one of those authors who posts chapters a specific day or something. They have their life more together than I do.**

 **Ok rant over! Thank you for getting this far into my story omg I love you. Enjoy chapter 6! (Kind of a short chapter I'm sorry)**

 **(PS follow me on tumblr -knightpringleprincess message me yo)**

* * *

 **CHAPTER 6**

Lucy stood near the food table in the back, breaking out into a cold sweat. The ball had already started, with Natsu and Lucy attending as traveling merchants. Scanning the room, Natsu was nowhere to be seen.

Lucy was wearing a strapless mermaid type light blue dress that accented her curves. It perfectly shaped her waist and even though she was standing in the shadows of the room, she was getting her fair share of stares. Due to Lucy's request, there was a slit up to her upper thigh, so if it happened that she needed to fight, she was still able to move freely. Satin gloves covered her guild mark to further create the illusion that she was a traveling merchant.

Lucy fingered the rim of the glass in the hands. Simply being here was bad enough, but now she didn't know where Natsu was. She didn't dare stray out of the shadows to search for him, because she knew she would most likely be asked to dance by one of the many men who kept glancing at her. She hoped Natsu would come find her soon. She hated parties like this.

Snapping out of her negative trance, Lucy noticed a thin, short man with glasses who seemed to be the center of attention. She assumed that was the Duke. He looked odd with his coattails almost touching the floor, surrounded by others a good foot taller than him.

"Do you think thats him?" A voice behind her questioned. Lucy jumped and whipped around, her hand moving to the slit in her dress instantly. Seeming familiar pink hair, she sighed and relaxed.

"Geez Natsu, don't sneak up on me like that… You almost gave me a heart attack!" Natsu chuckled.

"Your reflexes are getting better though! Did you see how fast you went on the offense?" Lucy only hummed a reply, her mind turning back to the Duke, her hand still playing with the slit of her dress. The dress had been custom made, so all her keys were hidden in little slots right next to the slit. Madelines dressmakers had to make it so her keys were easily accessible, but not visible. Thankfully they had done an amazing job, and Lucy was ecstatic when Madeline told her she could keep the dress afterwards. Thinking about her outfit, Lucy glanced at what Natsu was wearing. He had on the classic black blazer, white dress shirt, red tie, and black dress pants and shoes. He seemed a little uncomfortable because he wasn't wearing his scarf. He told her he hated suits, but Lucy thought it suited him, no pun intended. It looked nice.

Turning her mind back to the Duke, she noticed he was now talking to just one man.

"Game time." Lucy said, turning to Natsu. "You ready?" He nodded. Lucy took a deep breath and stepped out of the shadows.

* * *

"Pardon me for interrupting, are you the Duke of Maxon Creek?" Lucy politely tapped the short man's shoulder. The man turned around, looking at her with his beady eyes.

"Yes I am. And who might you be?"

"Pardon me for not introducing myself." Lucy curtsied. "My name is Crystal Lelock. I am a traveling merchant along with my husband, Lent Lelock." It was Happy's idea to present themselves to the Duke as a married couple and once Madeline heard it, she refused to give them their outfits until they agreed. Lucy was going to kill Happy as soon as they finished this mission.

"I see." The Duke's eyebrow slightly moved up. "And how may I help you?"

Lucy's voice dropped to a hushed whisper.

"Sir, my husband and I stopped here in Libia to stay the night two days ago and we heard rumors from the citizens that you have an artifact you are looking to sell. Is this true?"

The Duke's voice dropped as well, suddenly serious.

"If it is, are you willing to buy it?"

"Yes sir, my husband and I can offer you whatever price you want."

The Duke carefully looked around them.

"Where is your husband? I will show you the artifact." Lucy straightened up and looked around the room.

"Sir I'm afraid I don't see him. He was just with me… Where could he have gone?" Thankfully Natsu was following the plan. The plan was for Natsu to hide, resulting in Lucy, who was better at acting, going up to see the artifact with Natsu silently following. Lucy was in charge of knocking out the Duke himself, while Natsu would take out any guards he might have. Afterwards they would turn them into the local police and return the necklace to Madeline. Easier said than done.

"Perhaps he is in the bathroom. Are you able to perform the purchase without him?" The Duke raised an eyebrow at her.

"Yes sir, it won't be a problem."

"Very well. Follow me." With that, the Duke turned and started walking towards the staircase.

* * *

Lucy followed the Duke through a long dark hallway with the occasional light lacrima on the walls. Walking silently, Lucy eyed the occasional guard stationed in front of doors that they passed and wondered how many people she would have to fight off if it came to that.

They arrived at big double doors, with people the same size of Elfman on either side. Lucy grimaced. She hoped that Natsu would be able to take care of them and not her.

Walking inside, Lucy spotted the necklace laid out on a velvet pillow on a pedestal in the middle of the room. As she got closer, she started to sense the magical power radiating from it. It was a fuzzy, warm feeling that made her feel safe and at ease. A similar feeling to when she felt like family with all her other friends in Fairy Tail. Madeline's butler had mentioned that the necklace had a protection spell, but it was stronger than she expected. Lucy wondered how the Duke even got it out of Madeline's house in the first place. Snapping out of her thoughts, she heard the Duke speak.

"The jewels are exquisite are they not?" The Duke was slowly walking around the room, quietly observing Lucy. Lucy internally noted that the doors had been closed behind her.

"They are indeed..." Lucy murmured, awestruck by the blue and green gems surrounded by crystals and shining silver.

"How do they hold up to your standard though?"

Lucy looked up at the Duke, confused.

"Pardon?"

The Duke smirked in the shadows.

"With you being a Heartfilia, you must have seen a large amount of jewelry over the years. How does this necklace compare?"

Lucy internally reeled back. He knew who she was. Determined to not let him become aware of her rising panic, Lucy fought to keep a confused expression on her face.

"Sir I'm afraid I don't know what you are talking about. I am a simple traveling merchant." She shook her head while trying to find a way out. Any way out. There was a large window right in front of her, but the Duke was between her and it. The doors behind her had most likely been locked by the burly guards they had passed on the way in. Lucy was panicking more and more every second. She wanted to grab the necklace and jump for it, she could use her whip to slow her fall if she needed to, but Natsu was still in here somewhere. She was not going to leave him. She would rather die than leave Natsu behind.

Seeing the Duke's smirk turn into a scowl yanked Lucy back into reality.

"Don't play dumb with me, Lucy Heartfilia. I know who you are. You and your little boyfriend Natsu Drageneel think you can get away with your mission to retrieve the necklace?" Lucy had come to the conclusion that her only choice was to fight.

"And what makes you think it won't work?" Lucy's hand was slowly moving towards the slit where her keys were hidden.

"Why don't you ask this fellow?" A figure dropped from the ceiling. Meanwhile, the Duke grabbed the necklace and slipped into a secret passage behind a bookcase.

The figure stood up. It was a tall muscular man who had runes tattooed all down his left arm. He had black pants on, and a silver scarf tied around his waist. His black curly hair created a small afro, and he had dark skin accompanied with a well defined six pack and pectoral muscles. His green eyes looked her over, and the figure spoke with a deep voice.

"Where is the salamander?" It sounded like more of a command than a question.

"Not here. You have to get through me first." Lucy pulled out a key, widening her legs into a battle stance, and kept her other hand on her whip, which had also been hidden in her dress.

The figure looked confused.

"I will not fight weak woman. I was promised to fight the salamander."

Lucy's eyes narrowed and her blood boiled.

"What was that?" The figured prepared himself to jump over her in search on Natsu. In one quick motion, Lucy's whip was wrapped around one of his ankles and slammed him back to the ground. "Loke!" The lion spirit appeared before her, apparently as angry as Lucy was, because he didn't give her his normal flirty greeting.

The two of them braced themselves for battle, Loke with his regulus impact, and Lucy with fleuve d'etoiles.

"If you decide to stand in the way of me getting to the salamander, you will become my enemy." The man brought his fists up in front of him and bent his knees.

"So be it. You're not getting to Natsu. Ready, Loke?" Loke nodded. "Then lets go!" And with that they launched themselves at the man.

* * *

 **Wow the mission finally started. Took me long enough. I'm trash I know I'm sorry. Anyway, hope you liked chapter 6! Leave a review and let me know what you think! Thanks!**


	7. Chapter 7 - Pushing the limits

**Hello readers! Here's chapter 7, early as promised! Halfway through this chapter, the POV** **switches from Lucy to Natsu. Its pretty obvious, so I didn't label it. My first attempt at a fight scene? I really don't think this counts though. I have at least two major ones planned out for later in the story so we shall see if I can actually write them.**

 **Longest chapter as of yet! Wow! 3,500+ words! Thats a new record for me. I think** **future chapters will be even longer so look forward to more in detail chapters. (Hopefully)**

 **I tend to change my mind about things a lot, so I often will change something in a future chapter that I then have to go back and fix a detail in another chapter. I'm currently writing chapter 9 and 10, so theres a possibility that something might change. If anything does, I will address it up here.**

 **I rewrote this chapter like 3 times no joke. So I hope you like it! Remember to please review and favorite if you like it! Without further ado, a give you Chapter 7 - Pushing the limits! Enjoy!**

* * *

 **CHAPTER 7**

Lucy shielded her face with her arms from multiple larges rocks. She winced as they made rough contact with the already raw and bleeding skin right below her wrists. She was breathing heavily as well was Loke, who was right next to her. They had learned that the man they were fighting could control rocks, a magic that reminded Lucy of Jura, though they were nowhere on the same skill level.

Lucy didn't know what to do. She couldn't even land a hit on him and she was running low on energy. Getting hit and trying to dodge rocks constantly really drains you. It had only been a few minutes sense they started to fight, and Lucy was running low on time. The Duke was most likely escaping by now, but she wasn't just about to leave Loke and chase after him. No, she would stay and fight with him.

Just then Loke lunged at the man.

"Regulus impact!" His glowing fist came a foot away from the man before being knocked away by a huge boulder.

"Loke!" Lucy called out, his body slammed against the wall, and he weakly slumped onto the ground.

"You..! Don't hurt Loke!" Lucy yelled at the man while charging at him. She aimed fleuve d'etoiles at his arms but it was suddenly knocked out of her hands by a rock. Cursing and pulling her now throbbing hands back, Lucy stopped feet away from the man. He stepped towards her.

"I'll give you one last chance." He was getting closer but Lucy didn't step back. "Where is the salamander?" They were now toe to toe and Lucy refused to look away from his cold stare.

"You'll get to him over my dead body," She spat in his face.

"Apparently that will be the case." Before Lucy could respond, her feet were dangling above the floor, her airway blocked off by the rough hand wrapped around it. She was gasping for air and trying to pull his fingers away.

"Lucy! You bastard… get your filthy hands off her!" Loke shouted from across the room, struggling to stand up.

"Who are you to tell me what to do?" The man questioned as he sent more rocks to meet with Loke's face. His grip tightened around Lucy's neck, resulting in her letting out a small cry. She was beginning to see black spots in her vision, and the tears threatening to spill didn't help. 'I can't leave Natsu like this… What do I do?!' She frantically thought.

Suddenly the man sniffed the air.

"The salamander is close. He is injured. No matter, it will simply be easier to take him out that way." Lucy tensed up, all her muscles screaming for oxygen. She ignored it, only focusing on the fact that Natsu was nearby. And injured. She was suddenly furious. She was angry at herself. Her own failure of an acting job was the reason why the Duke knew who she was. Because of her mistake, Natsu had been put in danger.

Lucy's bruised fingers clawing at the man's hands around her through stilled. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Loke look at her with a surprised expression as he climbed out of the rocks. She took no note of it.

"Sorry silly woman, I cannot play with you anymore. The salamander is clo-" The man's sentence was cut off as he yelped and let go of Lucy, resulting in her crumpling to the ground. He backed away, clutching his burning hand. Slowly Lucy looked up at the man. For some strange reason she felt an immense amount of magical energy pulsing through her body. It was warm and comforting, but it was also very familiar. She couldn't place it.

She slowly stood up and took a step towards him.

"I said… Over. My. Dead Body." She hissed. The man's back hit the wall as he cowered in fear of her approaching glare. Once Lucy was standing right in front of him, she spoke. "If you ever try to go after Natsu again, I'll kill you." The man weakly nodded before Lucy's fist connected with his nose and he crumpled to the floor.

Lucy stared down at the man for a few moments before the magical power left and her knees gave out under her.

"Lucy!" Loke pushed the last rock off him and ran over to her.

Lucy slowly turned towards him as he knelt beside her.

"Loke… Are you okay?" Lucy absently reached for him, her voice hoarse.

"Yes I'm fine. But Lucy you should really worry about yourself.." He grabbed her hand softly, then slowly looked up and down her arm. "I'll be fine once I go back to the spirit world. It's not a big deal. You on the other hand…" He trailed off.

"Loke, I had a surge of power.. What was it?" Lucy's grip on his hand tightened.

"Ah yes, that. You called upon the power in the spirit world."

"The spirit world?"

"Yes. All your spirits, including me, gave you a part of our energy. I wouldn't be surprised if the Spirit King himself spared some as well. I don't know much about it, but I at least know that." Loke chuckled. "As for why you burned his hand, you most likely concentrated all the energy there."

Lucy was silent, staring down at her battered hands. She was painfully becoming aware just how many cuts and bruises she had gotten in the past two minutes.

"You were glowing." Loke said softly.

"What?" Lucy's attention shot up from their hands to his face. He smiled.

"You were glowing. Your skin, your hair, your eyes… It was truly beautiful Lucy."

Lucy flushed.

"Oh, um thanks." She tried to smile but she didn't have enough energy.

"We should move. With all this debris here I'm not too sure if I trust the strength of the floor." Loke said as he helped pull Lucy up. She gasped.

"The Duke! I need to go catch him!" She stumbled towards the door for a few feet before she was stopped by a gentle hand on her shoulder.

"It's alright Lucy, Natsu got him."

"Wh-what? How do you know?"

"Because he's about to walk through that door." Loke smiled. "I don't think Natsu realizes how lucky he is to have you Lucy." Lucy stared at Loke for a few moments before turning to the door.

"Lucy!" Natsu burst through. Him and Lucy made eye contact and he froze. Shock filled his face. Looking over her battered and bleeding body, Natsu seemed a loss for words.

Lucy quickly looked up and down his body. He had ditched his suit jacket and tie and his dress shirt was dirty, but she didn't spot any injuries. Looking down at his legs, she saw a rip in his pants right below his knee that exposed a long stretch of bleeding skin. It was long, but it looked shallow. He was fine. Lucy breathed a sigh of relief.

"Lucy, what happened?" He slowly took a step towards her. She could feel heat radiating off of him from where she was standing a few feet away.

"Natsu..." Her voice was hoarse. Her head was spinning and it was getting harder to stand by the second. He looked up and down her body again, eyes narrowing when he saw her neck.

"Who did that?" He sounded angry.

"Did what?" Her voice scratched her throat as she talked.

"Your neck. Who hurt you?" Lucy pulled a hand up to where she was sure there were obvious red marks shaped like fingers around her neck. The air around Natsu was getting hotter and hotter.

"Natsu it's okay I took care of him… He's over there." Natsu's gaze followed her outstretched finger pointing towards a body slumped against the wall. The air surrounding Natsu slowly cooled down, much to Lucy's relief.

Lucy saw black spots in her vision and shook her head to clear it. Her legs were shaking, and she wasn't sure just how much longer she could stand.

"Natsu-" Lucy stepped forward but she was cut off as her knee gave out from under her, and at the same time a sharp pain tore through her head. Lucy only had time to wince before her vision turned to black. The last thing she saw through her pain-clouded mind was Natsu reaching for her with wide eyes.

"Lucy!"

* * *

Natsu watched from the shadows as Lucy chatted with the Duke. His part of the plan was to follow them from behind and take out the guards. He wanted to get this mission over with. He didn't have a very good feeling about it.

Natsu rolled his shoulders in his tux. He hated dressing up, it completely limited his movement. Not to mention he didn't even have his scarf. Madeline refused to let him wear it. He thought Lucy liked dressing up, but when he saw her face after they were told about the ball, it seemed he was wrong. Maybe it had something to do with her past with her father. He didn't ask her. Natsu knew she would tell him about it if or when she felt like it and he wasn't going to push her.

Natsu looked again at Lucy. He wasn't going to lie, she looked amazing in her dress. All the other guys in the guild told him "how lucky he was to be on the same team with such a hottie." Yeah, he would agree that Lucy was pretty but he didn't really think much of it. Though tonight, she looked beautiful.

He jumped out of his thoughts when he noticed that the Duke and Lucy started to walk towards the staircase in the back.

'I'm all fired up!' He thought, and disappeared into the shadows.

* * *

Natsu watched the Duke and Lucy walk down the hallway. He was at the beginning of the hallway because he didn't want to catch any of the guards attention, so he waited till the two of them entered a room. Smirking, he stood up and started to walk down the dark hallway. A guard noticed him right away.

"Excuse me sir, party guests are not allowed up here."

Natsu said nothing and continued to walk towards him.

"Sir if you don't leave I will have to use force on you." The guard put a warning hand on his sword, as did the other guards behind him.

Natsu pulled a fiery fist from his pocket, earning gasps from the guards.

"It's him! Its the salamander! Get him!" Natsu ripped off his tie and suit jacket.

"Come at me!" He roared as he launched himself at them.

* * *

Natsu wiped the dirt off of his hands. The guards barely even put up a fight. It only took about two punches to knock each one out. Except for the really big ones who had been guarding the door that the Duke and Lucy had went into. They took about three. One of them nicked him with their sword right under his knee. He felt a little blood start to drip down but it wasn't deep so it wasn't a concern. Natsu had tied all the unconscious guards up in the middle of the hallway. He would come back later for them. Standing up, he started to walk towards the big doors where Lucy was.

Suddenly a small figure ran out of a nearby door and down the hall. The person hadn't even noticed Natsu. He stopped to look at the figure. The person was short, and they were holding onto something shiny. It looked like the Duke, and if it was, then was that Madeline's necklace? Not knowing for sure if it was the Duke, Natsu took off after him anyway. He passed the big doors where Lucy was and heard lots of loud crashes. Deciding to catch the Duke first, Natsu kept running and just hoped that Lucy was okay. He soon caught up to what was sure enough the Duke. Natsu noticed that he was so short that he could easily be picked up. So he did.

"What?!-Put me down!" Said the duke, surprised by his sudden change in elevation. He turned his heard towards Natsu. "Salamander?! How did you get past my guards?!"

"What you mean those guys?" Natsu gestured towards the back of the hall where the guards were all tied together. "They didn't put up much of a fight. You need to get some new guards, it was too easy to beat them!"

The Duke scoffed.

"Then if you like a challenging fight you better go help that blonde friend of yours."

Natsu tensed up. How did he know that him and Lucy were working together? Then he realized that before the guards had known who he was and so did the Duke. And go help Lucy? Natsu was confused for a second before he felt his blood run cold. He remembered the crashing sounds from the room. Lucy was in trouble.

The Duke opened his mouth to say something else but Natsu's fist hit his face before he could actually say it. Natsu was breathing hard along with his rising panic. The hallway was suddenly too quiet. He quickly tied the Duke up and grabbed the necklace from his hand. Only looking at it for a second, he noted the amount of magical energy that was coming off of it. Stuffing it in his pocket, Natsu took off towards the big double doors.

'Lucy, please be okay…' Natsu could only think about Lucy. She was his everything. He couldn't lose her. As he got closer to the door, a familiar scent hit his nose and he stopped running. He knew this smell all too well. It was Lucy's blood. And if he could smell it from this far away, that was not good. Natsu sprinted towards the doors with all his energy and burst them open.

"Lucy!" He made eye contact with her and everything froze. He could barely breathe as he looked at her bruised and bloody face. There was a nasty purple bruise forming on her left cheek and there were some scratches, as if whatever had stuck her also cut her at the same time. He barely took notice of Loke's presence behind her as he looked farther down her body. He could see a tiny bit of her forearms which looked like they had been rubbed until they were raw and bleeding. Her dress had been torn up and most of the skirt was gone. Her legs also had similar bruises. As he looked back up his eyes narrowed on her neck. Red marks that just so happened to be the same size and shape as fingers.

Natsu's realized he had been holding his breath, and sudden ragged gasps escaped from his mouth. He took a numb step towards her.

"Lucy, what happened?" He felt his magic grow in response to her torn up body, not noticing the change in temperature of the air around him.

"Natsu…" Her voice was hoarse. She looked so pale and tired.

"Who did that?" The anger inside him built.

"Did what?"

"Your neck. Who hurt you?" Lucy pulled a hand up to the marks. Natsu found himself breathing harder as his blood boiled.

"Natsu it's okay I took care of him… He's over there." Natsu's gaze followed her outstretched finger pointing towards a body slumped against the wall. He internally sighed in relief. Lucy could really hold her own, but now without sustaining damage to herself.

Suddenly Lucy started to shake her head. Ants took a worried step forward but she didn't notice.

"Natsu-" Lucy stepped forward but she was cut off as her knee gave out from under her. Finally having energy to move, Natsu lunged to catch her before she hit the floor.

"Lucy!" Natsu caught her inches above the ground.

Pulling her too weak body into his lap, he sat on the ground. He lightly pushed some of her hair off her face. A pair of shoes stepped into his field of view. Looking up, Natsu suddenly remembered that Loke was there. Looking at him, he saw that Loke was just about as beat up as Lucy was.

"Loke… How did this happen?" Loke smiled down at him.

"She did it to protect you."

"What?" He was confused. He could beat anybody who ever came at him. Lucy knew that.

"Well the guy we were fighting against could move and control rocks. Thats why we're both so beat up. Not exactly the softest thing."

"So how did she protect me?" Was she just trying to keep the guy away from him?

"Well at first the guy didn't want to fight Lucy. He was looking for you. Seems like the Duke had hired him to fight you specifically. So Lucy said he had to get through her first before he could get to you. Well the guy called her a weak woman and she basically snapped. The two of us mostly just got injured by the rocks. Those things really hurt. At one point I was thrown against the wall so Lucy tried to rush him, and thats when he grabbed her neck. It was because she had said he would get to you over her dead body." Natsu froze, and it suddenly became very hard for him to breathe. Memories of future Lucy flashed through his head and he became all too aware of just how limp the Lucy in his arms was. His hands started to shake.

"Lucy…" His voice came out weak and shaky. "Lucy…" He said louder, softly shaking her shoulders as fear and panic filled his thoughts. "Lucy!" He was desperately shaking her now. "You can't leave me!"

"Natsu! Don't shake her! She's fine, she just used up too much magic!" Loke put a firm hand on Natsu's shoulder. Natsu slowly turned to look at Loke, tears spilling from his eyes. Loke removed his hand, shocked to see such a scared expression on Natsu's face. Natsu looked back down at Lucy, tears clouding his vision. He slowly leaned over and pressed his forehead to hers as sobs racked his body.

After a few minutes, Natsu was brought back into reality by Loke's gentle hand on his shoulder.

"Natsu, you haven't even heard about how Lucy protected you yet." Natsu slowly sat up, sniffing and wiping spare tears away. "As I was saying," Loke continued. "So the guy was holding Lucy up by her throat, and then the guy said he smelled you and that you were nearby. So he was about to leave to find you but…" Loke scratched the back of his head. "It was truly amazing Natsu. I wish you could have seen it. She subconsciously called for energy from the spirit world. She concentrated it on her neck, so it burned his hand and he dropped her. It really amazing Natsu, she was glowing." Loke smiled. "So she walked towards him and he was scrambling backwards in fear the whole time. Once he was against the wall, she threatened to kill him if he ever came after you again." Natsu looked at Loke in shock.

"Lucy was glowing?"

"Yeah. Her skin, her hair, her eyes, everything. She did it on instinct too. Afterwards she was so confused what had happened, I had to explain it to her. I guess she cares about you enough to go to extreme lengths to protect you."

Suddenly a warm feeling filled his chest. He looked down at Lucy. He had always known Lucy was pretty, but now it hit him like a Lucy kick to his gut. She was gorgeous. She was strong too, she had just beaten this guy on her own, even if she ran out of energy at the end. Hell, that happened to him all the time. Lucy was his partner, his best friend. She was his strength, his light in the dark, that golden hair a beacon of good things to come. Holding her in his arms suddenly meant so much more than it had in the past. It filled him with a fuzzy feeling and his chest clenched. He had no idea why, but he liked it.

* * *

 **So I finally got to the mission! Took me long enough I know.**

 **Loke is always there for moral support.**

 **Has Natsu finally realized his feelings for Lucy? And whats this new power of Lucy's? Hmmmmm?**

 **Stay tuned till the next chapter! (mwahhahahah)**

 **I'm evil and I know it but I regret nothing**

 **Follow me on tumblr at knightpringleprincess ! Feel free to message me and hopefully i will post some art of Internal Feelings soon.**


	8. Chapter 8 - Don't leave me

**I AM SO SORRY! I HAVEN'T UPDATED IN MORE THAN A MONTH I'M COMPLETE TRASH IM SO INCREDIBLY SORRY**

 **So heres my lame excuse of an explanation: School started for me on August 17th and so obviously that took up a lot of time. A couple times I either thought about, or actually did sit down and try to write but I couldn't. Its been so long sense I wrote I'm trying to remember the plot omg. And also I said before that I like to be a couple chapters ahead, well I just finished chapter 9 and I started chapter 10 today so hopefully this will go well i don't even know.**

 **To answer your question Destructive_diva, I mentioned this in a previous chapter, but I'm sure as you can tell now, I do not have an updating schedule. I write when I can and I try to update as much as possible. I'm sorry, I'm not organized enough to have a schedule like that. Also, thank you for loving my writing that means a lot to me! As for the smut, I actually have no idea. I'll try to get back to you on that. ;)**

 **Thank you all so much for liking my story enough to stay for this long and read this excuse of a story! A few of you have been leaving reviews and I love you all so much omg.**

 **(I feel like Natsu is out of character here btw I'm so sorry)**

 **Enjoy!**

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 **CHAPTER 8**

Lucy slowly came to. It seemed she was lying down, so she experimentally shifted her weight. Instantly she regretted it. Letting out a groan, her whole body screamed in pain. Slowly opening her eyes, Lucy gritted her teeth and propped herself up on her elbows. She was in the hotel room. Glancing down at her arms, there was massive amounts of bandaging wrapped around them. She lifted an aching arm up to her forehead. Sure enough, there was bandaging there too. Lucy let her arm fall back on the mattress as she scanned the room for a certain pink haired dragon slayer. She didn't have to look far. He was sitting on a chair right next to her bed, upper body was slumped over onto the covers, sleeping head resting on his arms.

Lucy could see part of his face and even from a couple of feet away, the dark circles under his eyes were obvious. He hadn't gotten much sleep apparently. Was it her fault? How long had she been out? What day was it? Looking over to the open balcony and judging by the angle of the sun, it looked like late afternoon. Happy was nowhere to be seen. Letting out a little sigh, Lucy looked back at Natsu. She didn't want to wake him up, he needed his rest.

A sharp pain suddenly shot through her head. Taken off guard, she bit back a cry. Her head feel back onto the mattress, her hands pressing into her temples, trying to relieve some of the pain. Her breathing quickened and her eyes squeezed shut. Lucy arched her back, picking her throbbing head off the mattress. In her mind clouded by pain, she didn't notice that her knee hit a nearby snoozing dragon slayer. She also didn't notice the stream of curses that erupted from his mouth when he was awake enough to see her whole body contracting in pain.

Lucy's consciousness was fading fast, the screaming pain in her head refusing to go away. Tears leaked from her eyes and she dimly noted that there were suddenly strong warm arms circled around her. Feeling sleep calling her, Lucy gladly fled from the pain that had so quickly invaded.

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"-ucy," Lucy's eyes fluttered open. "Lucy!" She found a pair of green eyes filled with concern down at her. A warm hand was cupped around her face, thumb absently stroking her cheek. "Lucy! You with me?" The green eyes darted nervously from one of her own eyes to the other.

Lucy blinked. She opened her mouth but nothing came out. Her head was throbbing, and it slowly brought back the memories of the pain that it had accompanied earlier. Natsu's still worried face came into focus and Lucy realized that she was lying in his lap, his other arm wrapped around her shoulders, supporting her weight. Not that she minded of course.

"Lucy! You okay?!" Lucy blinked again and nodded. Natsu's features relaxed immensely at her response and he breathed out a sigh of relief. He pulled her body up so she was sitting on his lap, hand that was previously on her cheek dropped to wrap around her waist "Geez Luce you had me really worried! One second you were sleeping and the next you were holding your head like it was killing you! What happened?!" Lucy was just as confused as he was.

"I-I don't know." She stammered, looking down at her shaking hands."I woke up and looked around for a second but suddenly my head started to really hurt. I don't know where it came from but it felt like…" Her words dropped to a whisper. "like my head was being pulled apart in different directions… Natsu, I've never been in so much pain…" Her eyes welled up at the memory, fear pulsing through her body.

When she looked up at his eyes again, she saw fear. She saw confusion. She saw concern. He was as scared as she was. Lucy leaned into his chest, her eyes looking down at her lap again, her hands grabbing fistfuls of his shirt as sobs started to rack her body. Whether it was from her fear, pain, or even the fight, she didn't know. The only thing she knew was that she would be safe when Natsu pulled her closer and whispered into her hair.

"You're gonna be okay."

And she believed him.

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The rest of the day, Natsu refused to leave Lucy's side. Happy had returned earlier with food, only to fly crying into Lucy's breasts. The remaining pain in her head slowly disappeared over the rest of the day but the fresh memory haunted Lucy's mind. The only time Natsu got up from the chair was to take a shower, and when he did, Happy informed her that she had been out for two days.

"Two days?!"

"Yup. Natsu didn't leave your bedside at all. He hardly slept at all too. He was waiting for you to wake up." So thats why he looked so tired. She didn't imagine those dark circles.

"Happy, what happened after I passed out?"

"Well, I was in here eating my fish when Natsu ran in carrying you. He put you down on the bed and told me to go get bandages, so I did. When I came back he was holding your hand and he looked really worried." Lucy blushed. "Well we patched up your visible cuts," Lucy had noticed earlier that she was still in her dress. "But we should maybe take you to Wendy soon though just in case."

Lucy hummed in agreement. After a few moments of silence, she spoke.

"Hey Happy?"

"Yeah?"

"Do you want to go to tell Wendy now? Like send a letter? I think we may be stuck here for a few more days so maybe it would be nice to let her know ahead of time."

"Aye Sir! I'll send Charle a fish too!" And with that, Happy zoomed out the window.

Lucy sighed. When Happy was talking to her, she realized something. She must have put Natsu through hell. He had lost Igneel when he was young. he probably got so scared when it became possible that he might lose her too. She needed to apologize.

Right on time, Natsu stepped out of the bathroom. He looked up to see Lucy trying to get out of bed.

"Lucy! Stop, you're too hurt!" He ran over right as she stood up. "Come on Lucy you should really be in bed-" He had a firm but gentle grip on her shoulder.

"No. Natsu, I need to apologize." She looked up at him with determined eyes. Natsu took a half step back, letting go of her shoulder, startled by her sudden change in attitude. Then Lucy stepped forward towards him.

She wrapped her arms around his waist and buried her face in his chest. She could feel Natsu tense up, his arms above his head, as if he was defending himself. A few moments passed before she spoke. "I'm sorry I made you worried. I'm sorry you were scared… I just.. I couldn't let him get to you." Her voice was getting higher as tears threatened to spill from her eyes.

"Lucy.. Why did you do it?" He sounded like he was getting angry. "Why didn't you let him go to me? I could have taken him easily." Lucy pushed herself away from him, some tears succeeding in falling down her cheeks.

"I couldn't okay?! I just couldn't!" Her own voice was shaking, from the anger and the tears.

"But why?! You put yourself in danger! I can't stand seeing you hurt Lucy! Why did you do it?!" It had escalated into a full scale shouting match.

"I can't stand seeing you hurt either! Phantom, Tenroujima, Eclipse! Do you think I like watching you get beat up?! No I hate it!" Lucy screamed back, tears streaming down her face. "If I can prevent that from happening, I'll gladly put myself in danger!"

"No! Lucy, I was worried you were going to die on me." Natsu's voice became very quiet. Lucy's anger suddenly disappeared. "I…" Natsu struggled for words but nothing came out. Tears had started to well up in his eyes. "I-I've seen you die before Lucy…" With a sinking feeling Lucy remembered her future self during the whole Eclipse mess.

"Oh Natsu…" She took a step towards him but he flinched away.

"I was so scared…" Tears were falling down Natsu's checks and his voice was shaking. "I was so scared you would die… Why did you not just let him come to me?!" He raised his voice again. "Why did you have to put yourself though that?! And your headache too! That could be a side effect of pushing yourself too far!"

Lucy said nothing as sobs shook her body. She launched herself at Natsu and tightly wrapped her arms around his waist. Her tear stained face was buried in his chest, mumbling, "I just couldn't," again and again.

After a few moments Natsu wrapped his own arms around her, tears still blurring his vision. He pulled her tighter to his body, while he pressed his lips against the top of her head. "Don't ever leave me," He whispered into her hair. Natsu heard a sob from the blonde as she wrapped her arms tighter around him and nodded her head in agreement.

"I won't," He heard her say through his shirt. "I'm not going anywhere." Natsu let a few more tears slip out as he closed his eyes and kissed the top of her head.

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 **Thank you for reading! I cross my heart I will upload chapter 9 soon just because I feel so bad.**

 **Follow me on tumblr and feel free to message me or something idk I'm lonely nail trash - thedarkmatternator**

 **Have a wonderful day!**


	9. Update

Hello everybody!

Unfortunately this is not a chapter update. I can't believe it's been two years since I started this story, and almost two years since it went dark. I lost the motivation to continue writing it, as I became unhappy with the story but I had already posted it so I wasn't sure what to do. I did the cowardly thing, as I simply stopped writing and never wrote a post about going on hiatus or anything. There's a small group of you who have favorited this story, or subscribed, or even left reviews and to all of you I am extremely grateful and I apologize for abandoning Internal Feelings.

I am currently working on two other fics, one of them is a Miraculous Ladybug fic and the other is another Fairy Tail one. However, due to what happened with Internal Feelings, I will not be posting them until they are completely finished. I cannot just sit down and write, I only write once every few months. It's hard for me to find the motivation to write sometimes, and I do not want to submit eager readers to my stories going dark for long periods of time again.

I will take another look at Internal Feelings and see if I can bring myself to finish it, or possibly rewrite it. I feel absolutely horrible for not finishing this story and I hope you will all somehow forgive me.

I cannot promise anything, but I will try to get a new chapter and/or story out soon.

-23luckyduck


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